1. Technical Field
This disclosure relates to processors, and more particularly to prediction of certain branch instructions during execution of vector partitioning loops.
2. Description of the Related Art
Branch prediction has become commonplace in most modern processors. While backward branches may be highly predictable in many cases, some backward branches may be predicted poorly by conventional branch predictors. More particularly, Macroscalar processors and compilers rely on vector partitioning loops to correctly handle possible loop carried dependencies such as memory hazards, for example. Vector partitioning loops use backward branches to iterate on the loop. In cases where the vector is partitioned frequently, the conventional branch predictor may perform poorly, which may adversely affect processor performance.